NordVPN Review: One of the Best VPN Services of 2016

Find yourself pitted against some pretty intimidating competitors is never pretty, but NordVPN seems to be enjoying the challenge. To stay afloat and maintain its reputation for being among the best VPN services in the market, it is constantly improving on its encryption prowess, along with performance, speed, reliability, support, and features. Of course, the rewards being reaped by the service for this dedicated effort are plentiful. Staying relevant in an industry characterized by fierce competition is no walk in the park, but NordVPN seems to have mastered the feat. Get to know more about this amazing VPN service in our detailed NordVPN review.

Security and Privacy

NordVPN does not shy away from flaunting its commitment to providing a secure online browsing experience. Just as you would expect of one of the leading VPN clients, several security protocols are available for tunneling and encryption purposes. The list includes:

OpenVPN

PPTP (Point to Point Tunneling Protocol)

L2TP/IPsec (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol/Internet Protocol Security)

SSTP (Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol)

IKEv2 (Internet Key Exchange version 2)

The service claims that aside from OpenVPN offering 256-bit AES encryption, L2TP/IPsec also delivers similar powerful protection to user’s traffic while it’s in transit. This is, of course, great to hear as it leaves you with a couple of really good security protocols to choose from. NordVPN also offers Tor over the Internet, but you really don’t need to get too excited over that as this so-called wonderful feature offers nothing that simply using Tor browser with another VPN service doesn’t achieve.

Coming to the privacy policy of NordVPN, the VPN service has made it clear that it neither monitors nor logs user’s surfing history, the time at which users used the internet, or anything else of the sort. You really don’t have anything to worry about here as your personally identifiable information and any other details are kept under wraps.

Speed

Despite its reputation as one of the best VPN offerings in the online market, NordVPN left us somewhat disappointed with its performance in the speed department. We are not suggesting that the downloading and uploading speeds dropped to the point where the service became unusable. However, on many occasions, the browsing speed turned out to be slow enough to make us wonder if we really were using NordVPN or had accidently purchased some cheap replica. Don’t worry though as it is very much capable of delivering a smooth streaming experience. If you feel the connection speed is too slow, simply reconnect.

Features

NordVPN sure comes with a loaded arsenal, with pretty much every feature doing its bit to make the VPN service maintain its reputation of being a high-quality offering. The most notable of its features include:

Multiple tunneling protocols

World-wide servers (500+ servers in 50+ countries)

Multi-platform support

Automatic kill-switch

3000+ free proxies

Up to 6 simultaneous connections supported

These are certainly not the only features that you will be getting. For a complete list of features available in NordVPN Premium and NordVPN Free version, we advise you to pay a visit to the VPN service’s official website.

Pricing and Plans

NordVPN has both a free version as well as a paid version. As always, we suggest you spend some time on the free version before investing in the premium version. NordVPN premium version has three plans, which are:

Simple: 1-month plan with a price of $8/m

Standard: 6 months plan with a price of $7/m

Best Offer: 1-year plan with a price of $5.75/m

Compatible Platforms

In an age of device fragmentation, a VPN that doesn’t support multiple platforms is unlikely to enjoy a great degree of success. Fortunately for NordVPN, it has this area covered pretty well. The list of supported platforms includes:

Windows

Mac OS

Linux

iOS

Android

Just in case you are wondering, here is the list of devices supported by NordVPN:

PC

Laptop

iPhone

iPad

Android smartphone

Android tablet

You certainly won’t have a problem running NordVPN on any of the operating systems or devices mentioned here.

Customer Support

NordVPN customer support really impressed us, and we are confident you will enjoy a pretty similar experience as well. There is 24/7 Live Chat Support available so that you never find yourself dealing with your frustration or confusion alone. In case you are not interested in using Chat Support, then there’s the Email Ticket Support option available as well. The support team is courteous and knowledgeable, which sure is an excellent combination.

Final Verdict

NordVPN is easily one of the best VPN clients available for PCs, smartphones, and tablets. It has lots of features, and pretty much all these features work great. We did have our reservations over the inconsistent speed, but that hardly qualifies as a deal-breaker. Overall, you will certainly be glad to have picked up NordVPN.

Pros

Over 500 servers in 50+ countries

5 tunneling options

6 simultaneous connections

Free version available

30-day money-back guarantee

Excellent support

Cons

Inconsistent speed

Bottom Line

NordVPN is a great VPN service if you are willing to overlook the inconsistent speed and above-average price tag.